Common Ground is an education, retreat and therapy centre based on a farm in Northern Ireland. It is a not-for-profit Community Interest Company. The core activities are rooted in nature, in the landscape of Co Fermanagh and its ecosystems. These include horticulture therapy, ecotherapy, indoor therapies including counselling and psychotherapy, creative arts, professional training, and courses. We will be teaching people how to grow food whilst actively supporting biodiversity. Before you proceed to the rest of the site please take time to read the poem.

Common Ground

No matter how many walls we build
fences we stretch across this landscape –
No matter how many names we speak
against the others to make them different, wrong –

Each of us was born from the soil of this land
to breathe the same air, drink the same water –

We share one sky – our lingering looks at changing clouds
and the pattern they cast on the hills we call home –

And in the folds of these valleys,
the woods, fields, hedgerows,
daily conversation of wren, robin and blackbird
is broadcast to anyone who cares to stop, to listen –

From dawn to dusk sunlight is offered equally,
our shadows stretch and withdraw at the same rate –

At night we turn our faces upwards,
enter the shared wonder of the stars –

You point to the plough – I nod in agreement.
The moon invites us all to the freedom of our dreams.
When the wind blows from the east everyone feels the chill
and as rain falls there is no law to say whose field gets wet –

The ground receives your hayseed and mine equally,
makes no specific promise based upon the creed I speak
or the colour of your skin.

In life the earth receives our blood and tears without question.
In death it embraces our bones without favour.

56 thoughts on “”

I am delighted to hear that the Common Ground project is moving forward. This is a unique way to approach education and therapy in the context of nature. I hope that the success of Common Ground will inspire similar projects in other areas of the world.

Love the poem Robbie & the premise of your work, very inspiring…I will be sure to a)share your site on your/my other social media platforms & b) when time is a little less of a constraint come back & re-visit the site properly – Namaste, Sue